The French audiovisual regulator, Arcom, announced on Tuesday that it had taken legal action after comments on LCI, BFMTV and CNews by Éric Zemmour, a possible Reconquête candidate at the Élysée, considered to call for discrimination, the day after October 17.
“As a public authority, we may be led to report comments to the public prosecutors when they appear to us to be in breach, for example of the laws relating to calls for discrimination. This was done by Arcom services last week regarding comments made on different broadcasts by Éric Zemmour, the president of the regulator, Martin Ajdari, declared on France Inter. Such a referral “is not unprecedented but it is relatively rare,” he added.
On October 18, the probable future far-right presidential candidate spoke on LCI of “hordes of North African and African barbarians returning to the cities”, on BFMTV of “Arab-Muslim scum” and on CNews called for “the remigration” of looters, that is to say the expulsion of foreigners. Without citing these passages, Mr. Ajdari said that their “repetition” as well as their “proximity on different antennas” had “justified” a referral to justice.
“The law does not give us the power to ban this or that guest in advance, but the responsibility of television and radio channels is to ensure control of the airwaves”
“The law does not give us the authority to ban this or that guest in advance” but “the responsibility of television and radio channels is to ensure control of the airwaves,” the leader stressed. That is to say that when comments “go beyond the framework of the law, it is up to the channels to contradict and qualify” these comments. In addition, “the comments made by people can give rise to their individual, criminal liability”, which is potentially the case of Éric Zemmour, already convicted in the past for inciting discrimination, hatred or racial insult.
After the first day of mobilization on October 17, Arcom asked television channels and radio stations to ensure “rigorous and balanced treatment” of the demonstrations and violence, indicating that it had received reports of several sequences. Following the racist attack in Trappes on October 23, political leaders criticized “hate speech” or racism expressed on certain broadcasts.
Mr. Ajdari indicated on Tuesday that “the words must respect a framework which is that of the obligations set by law, and the agreements entered into by the channels” with Arcom. And “when this framework is exceeded, we sanction. We do it regularly and we will do it again.” “But we do it on a case-by-case basis, on specific comments that have been made, and not on the denunciation that I can understand of an atmosphere, an atmosphere that is encouraged or a psychological conditioning that does not fall at all within the scope of audiovisual regulation,” underlined the manager.
